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Lessons in the Art of Love
From Chicken Soup for the Soul: All You Need Is Love
By Deborah Shouse Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.
~Kahlil Gibran It wasn't until he was in his early eighties that my father taught me about the depths of his love for my mother. I knew my parents had a fine relationship, but I never realized how much my father adored my mother. There was little hint of his admiration and passion in their visible everyday relationship. Only after my mother sank into Alzheimer's did my grief-worn father reveal his immeasurable love. He didn't talk about his feelings: He was, after all, a World War II veteran and a man taught to stoically endure for the sake of his family. But he showed me his devotion every day. "Isn't she beautiful?" he said to me one day, as we sat with mom in the nursing home's private dining room, sharing a lunch I'd brought: my parents' favorite broccoli soup, half a tuna fish sandwich and a brownie. Mom had a little fleck of mayonnaise-laden tuna on her cheek and a blob of greenish soup on her bib. Her hair was greasy — she'd been resistant to taking a bath. To me, she looked like an old crone from the fairy tales, the kind of dirty, mysterious witch who might whisper a cryptic piece of wisdom that would save your life, but who certainly wouldn't win a beauty contest. I couldn't see what my father saw. (Keep reading) | 
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